Comments on: Brookdale Macy's & Brookdale Mall, part 2

By: WW

WW — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:00:20 +0000

Sears owns their building. That is why they are still there.

Great post!

By: dave

dave — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:06:59 +0000

Love your site

I went to Brookdale yesterday, Saturday, with my DSLR to take some photos of it before it gets demo’d. Got asked to leave, rather told to leave. And even got walked out by 3 rent a cops.

I’m guessing you used a cell camera or Point and shoot to do the photos.

Dave – Plymouth

By: Jeanie Hoholik

Jeanie Hoholik — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:05:06 +0000

Hi there! I love your blog! Which is obvious, since I posted to my blog roll. Someone emailed me and asked me a question about strip malls and I don’t know the answer. Here is the question and maybe you can answer it for him. Thank you!

Jeanie Hoholik

hiya,.
i am not sure if you manage the dumpy strip mall blog but wanted to
find out if you know of any shuttered strip mall cinemas around the
twin cities.

cheers!
tim massett
timmassett@gmail.com

I will let him know that I sent this to you. Thank you!

By: Disco Studd

Disco Studd — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:55:48 +0000

Eeh, Sonic isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Their food is mediocre at best. I’d take Culver’s over Sonic any day (for the food, anyway.) The main reason to go to Sonic, however, is for their drink selection. Snice Dairy Queen stopped serving Orange Mr. Misty’s, I go to Sonic for my Orange Mr. Misty Freeze (orange slushie blended with vanilla soft serve) fix.

BTW, the north metro is getting a Sonic soon. I read in the Strib last week that they’re building a Sonic in Clumsy Heights right next to the Toxic Hell on 49th & Central. Yaaay, no more driving to Elk River!!!

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:44:07 +0000

Last person to leave Brookdale, turn out the light… but turn the gas on & blow that puppy sky high.

Actually, the review was pretty kind, even with all the Urban references. You don’t even notice the hallway to nowhere, that used to lead to the old Mervyn’s.

At this point, it doesn’t even matter why it failed, it just has to go.

I think there’s still a B&N there, but I have one across the street from where I work downtown, too.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:41:27 +0000

Damn. That Macy’s looks straight-up like the Marshall’s in the Hub in Richfield! That’s hilarious.

By: dumpystripmalls

dumpystripmalls — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:17:48 +0000

Wow, so there IS an actual legitimate reason why we don’t have In-N-Outs here. Thanks for the info – I had no idea. Last time I ate at In-N-Out is when I was in LA in 2001 so it’s been a while!

I haven’t had a chance to try Sonic yet, but it looks good!

By: Disco Studd

Disco Studd — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:53:13 +0000

The last time I was in Brookdale was right after they added Old Navy and Barnes & Noble (Macy’s was still Dayton’s and Penny’s and Mervyn’s were still there) and it was still quite vibrant. It’s quite sad to see how quickly the mall’s gone downhill after seeing pics of the inside in its current “Apache Plaza circa 2001″ state.

I like Old Scowl’s idea. Look how amazingly well that plan worked when they redeveloped the old Sears building on Lake Street.

And we’ll never get In-N-Out Burgers up here. I asked the manager at one of the INOB’s off of the Vegas Strip what their deal was, and he said they wouldn’t be able to maintain their high standards of fresh beef, vegetables, and dairy products if they switched to a nation-wide distribution network. They would have to freeze the food stock to achieve this, and shipping out frozen patties and fries would make them just another McDonald’s wannabe. This is the reason they don’t have any restaurants outside of California and Nevada. But good gawd do they have the absolute best tasting fast food on earth, or what? I’m sure if they built one here, the lines would stretch 4-5 times as far as they did when that first Sonic opened last summer!

By: TheOldScowl

TheOldScowl — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:08:55 +0000

Okay. I will bite to make the first comment. Brookdale could perhaps revive itself as the world marketplace of the Dales of Minnesota. It could be an even broader manifest of the former NorthBrook shopping center’s aim of being ‘Hmong Shopping Center’ in Minnesota, which was razed a few years ago to open up space to possibly put in office buildings, which have not appeared.
Many businesses in the area (of Asian, Latino and African flavor) of the Brooklyn’s could find a place there, instead of being spread out among the strip malls of the burbs and even parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Or maybe they could be new additions to the original businesses. that could reinvent the indoor shopping mall’s purpose as a town square of commercialism. There could be space in the mall for things other then stores and restaurants. How about a West/East African immigrants advocacy center? Maybe a Southeast Asian social club (reminiscent of the Midwestern Club in Minneapolis I recall seeing before going through one of the Skyways). Possibilities are there to reinvent Brookdale to the city’s changing cultural makeup, which the Strib recently stated as being 49 point something percent.
There might be grounds for some grad student of socialogy to write a dissertation on a ‘Reinterpretation of a European Construct of Marketplace–on the Prairie’.